Context 153 - March 2018

C O N T E X T 1 5 3 : M A R C H 2 0 1 8 45 Douglas.Their work included an estate of arts-and-crafts houses at Port Erin in the south of the island and the largest single-house commission on the island, complete with model farm, on the outskirts of Castletown. At the property next door to that he designed a large, half-timbered stable block and extended the castellated mansion with limestone salvaged from Castle Rushen. For the lieutenant governor he also designed two large shelters for the ancient collection of Norse and Celtic crosses at two of the parish churches. At Kirk Michael it took the form of a lych gate with seating from which to watch the Gordon Bennett Motor Trials. At Onchan, on the outskirts of Douglas, Rigby designed two shops with integral living accommodation, both in an arts-and-crafts style. He also designed a public house and buildings for a holiday camp constructed out of timber frames and sheeted with corrugated iron, which lasted right up to the closure of the camp in 1972. Of all the architects on the island, Rigby was undoubt- edly the one that came a close second to Baillie Scott. In a number of speculative houses for one builder, he designed the plan and the elevations but, unlike Scott who insisted on designing everything right down to the hinges and door handles, Rigby did not always work on the interior. Thus, in one house at Little Switzerland, in the hall of hardwood panelling stand two polishedAberdeen granite columns, originally intended to support the portico of a Victorian guest house on Douglas Promenade. Rigby’s death came prematurely. His involvement in society included being a senior lieutenant in the Isle of Man Volunteers. In August 1910 they were at camp in the island where he suffered with an abscess of the jaw. This resulted in blood poisoning fromwhich he died on 31 August, aged 46. Rigby’s work is well executed and appreciated, yet not one of his buildings has been registered (the Isle of Man equivalent to listing).The island’s first conservation officer advised that when she had registered the Baillie Scott buildings, she would turn to those designed by Rigby. She never got that far before resigning and her successor never took on that task. Since the end of December 2017 the post of conservation officer no longer exists on the Isle of Man, so Rigby’s buildings go unprotected. Ballahowin, near St Marks.The house, built for a gentleman farmer, has lost the two chimney stacks on its left-hand side. One of a number of houses designed by Rigby and his partner Frank Heslop at St Georges Crescent, Port Erin acid-etched glass and stained glass.The only connection with the Duke was the name of the hotel, but Rigby showed his interest in antiquity by using the crest for decoration. Subsequent commissions were for the design of a warehouse, a ticket office for the Douglas Head Electric Tram, shops and houses, but his big break came in 1898 when a local newspaper asked him to design a printing works for them, incorporating letting commercial space. He produced his plans and, on the approval of the client, immediately deposited them for building bye-law approval. As it happened, the meeting of Douglas Corporation was that evening and the plans were approved.The newspaper made great play on this same day service and repeated the information in its Examiner Annual for several years, giving him a further boost.The large corner-plot building, next to the town hall, was built in rusticated local granite blocks on the ground floor, with two storeys finished in roughcast and an upper floor incorporating red terracotta copings.This was quite different to all the other commercial buildings of the time. Rigby’s domestic housing, in a group at Little Switzerland on the outskirts of the town, was sat cheek by jowl with houses designed by Baillie Scott. Both used half-timbering with roughcast set between the timbers, and red clay tiled roofs featured throughout. On some of Rigby’s houses, he used sliding sash windows and on others casement, the same as Scott. His pair of cottage-style houses were, however, quite different to anything else. He joined the Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society, and often measured and drew plans of ancient sites. The lieutenant governor of the Isle of Man commissioned Rigby to restore Castle Rushen in the centre of Castletown. For a number of years it had been used as a prison, debtors’ prison and a lunatic asylum.There had been many alterations and Rigby had the brief to return it to its medieval form. To do this, he spent several months touring castles in Wales and elsewhere. To safeguard his practice in the meantime, he took on a partner, Frank L Heslop, who initially worked out of the Port Erin office but in Rigby’s absence transferred to Peter Kelly was the founding chairman of the Isle of ManVictorian Society from 1976 and he still plays a major role in its operation.